Alpha Course, Why and How Do I Pray?

This week's session puts the focus on an important aspect of our personal walk with the Lord — prayer. Prayer is an essential part of our walk with the Lord, in fact Nicky suggests it's the most important activity in our lives.

But how many of us put prayer in that kind of focus? My guess would be not many, myself included. I'm always amazed by the faith of those who spend hours in prayer. I've mentioned this before, but Francis Chan tells the story of his grandmother who spent hours each morning in prayer, calling it her most cherished part of the day. Most of us go to prayer when we're in need, when we're scared, when we feel lost; but how many go to God when we're overjoyed, or just because we have some quiet space during the day and we want to share our what's on our hearts?

And you know, I've noticed those that are more able to answer yes to the back half of that question seem to be happier, more content, and more full of joy. And that's because they are infused with the richness of a deep, personal relationship with God. That's a relationship that is built, in part, through prayer.

There are a few other things that I thought about when going through this message. First is the way we pray. Nicky talks about the ACTS Model — Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication (requests). I know I'm good at that last part, but if I'm honest, I probably tend to gloss over those first three parts. But we shouldn't. I couldn't help but think about my interactions with others. Rarely do you just jump right into what you want them to do, usually you talk to them about other things first. That's because you have a relationship with them. If all you ever did was come in and ask for things, what kind of relationship would you have? The same goes for our relationship with God.

Second, God answers all prayers — but it's not always as we'd like. Sometimes the answer is no. That can be the hardest thing for any person to accept, whether you're new to the faith of have been a Christian for many years. We can't understand God's will for the world, or his plans for our lives, but sometimes a door closed by God leads to something better. It just takes time.

Which comes to my last thought, which is that God's timing is much better than our own. I have seen this lesson twice, and both times I've been powerfully impacted by the illustration Nicky offers at the end. It's emotional, beautiful, and real. It's an example of an incredible answer to prayer — but what makes it powerful is how that answer appears. I won't spoil it here (in part because I couldn't do it justice), but it's a reminder that God answers in his time. It's common for us to want to see immediate results to our prayers, and to become discouraged when that doesn't happen. But, if we're patient and faithful, often the answers come in a way that exceeds our expectations.

One of the things Nicky talks about in this session is his prayer journal. He talks about keeping the journal, writing down petitions and praises, and reviewing it periodically to see how God has answered those prayers. It was a powerful idea for me, one I hadn't really considered.

Tonight, as a part of this course, we're going to be offering each of you prayer journals. Of course, it's up to you to decide what to do with them. But I challenge each of you to faithfully keep that journal for the rest of this Alpha Course (which is only 10 more weeks) to see how God works through your prayers. I will be taking this challenge as well. And during our final session, we'll have a chance for anyone that wishes to share how the process has changed their prayer lives.